Ipswich West Moreton Auto Club

The Ipswich West Moreton Auto Club inc (IWMAC) caters for club-level motor sport including Autocross, Sprints, & Short Circuit Touring Car Racing, on a dirt track at Willowbank Park, Champions Way, Willowbank. We also Cater for the Car Enthusiest with Car Club Runs, Cruises, Registration and Social and Community Events. The club is particularly dedicated to providing support to Junor competitors.

The track consists of two circuits : The Autocross track is 1km in length, 6m wide and has 8 corners of varying tightness. The Sprint track is 1.3km long, 8m wide and has 7 corners. The track surface is a decomposed granite construction, that gets grippier as they day runs. During the year, two championships are run, one for Autocross and one for Sprints, where drivers compete individually against the clock in a variety of classes.

For an aerial view, click this fb link, starts on the back straight and comes back around to the start finish, courtesy member Marc Wilson of the blue/white MkII Escort that adorns this site:)

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A lovely Queensland Sunday saw 41 entries take to the well pepared Ipswich West Moreton Auto Club track at Willowbank.

A class saw a weekend high of 10 entries with Juniors showing great support with 7, and other classes fairly even at 4-6 each.

Overall, times started out pretty quick with E class into the 1:36s, and Kevin Parkes best of the 2WDs in the 1600 Pulsar behind 3 E class cars in Moffitt, Linning and Wienert, respectively. Quickest junior was 14 yr old Jordyn Rieck in a credible 15th OR on run 1. Notably the Pulsar (shared by Bond and Parkes) saw a scant 0.19 separating them.

Run 2 and the times dropped a second or two for most runners, but keeping the track good was requiring a lot of water which of course can effect those immediately after it. Never the less Moffitt dropped 2 seconds to a 1:34.9 to continue to lead from Linning and Weinart, with Bond reversing the trend by putting 0.2 on Parkes. B Class saw Barry (BMW) just under 2 secs up on Ric Ganderton's Excel (with FX 2 litre power). Jordyn was again quickest Junior, although Eddie Gough had a shocker with 2 penatlties.

Run 3 had times generally dropping again with Moffitt lowering the benchmark to 1:33.75. Andrew Pearce was coing to grips with the Focus XR5 to be heading D Class (1:40.8), Ganderton (1:40.0) heading B class, Lloyd Robertson putting in his usual smooth (I've been doing this for a million years) class act heading C Class in the BMW M135 Hatch with a 1:45.6, Stephanie Muston a 1:46 to head the ladies and Jordyn Rieck was quick with a 1:42.92.

Last run before lunch saw Eddie Gough turn the tables a little in the Juniors, with a 1:45 to best Jordyn by 1.5 secs, but he had two witches hats to make up for yet. Barry Clark put in a great 1:36.99 (lets call it a 37 flat) to be fastest 2WD and third in the run. Maddy Dyba pulled a quick one out a little unexpectedly to head the ladies by 0.5 over Chloe Cullen, who is still coming to grips with the RWD BMW after a couple of years in the FWD Fiesta.

After lunch saw the E Class cars front the track after the water truck, as the club changed the order each run to give all a turn at the head of the field. This was exactly what the 2WDs were waiting for and Barry Clark and Paul Bond took advantage laying down 1:38.44 and 1:39.91 to be better than most of the AWDs, although Craig Morrison bucked the trend a little with a second best 1:38.73.There were 3 cars, in 3 clases, separated by 0.47 secs. These three the only ones to crack 1:40 this run. Leigh Randles did a good run to head C Class (1:45.5), Greg Woodbridge headed the big cars in the VR V8 with a 1:47 and Jordyn Rieck heade the Juniors, with a 1:48.2 to just head Stephanie Muston (Ladies) with a 1:48.8.

Runs 6 and 7 saw the main runners doing the same, with Moffitt throwing an impressive 1:31.06 in run 7 to remove any doubt of the fastest lap and outright winner (after losing a heap of time with a wet run 5). Alan Wienert did a 1:33.9 to best Matthew Linnings 1:34.4, but ultimately settled for 3rd by 1.7 secs over the 6 timed runs (of 7). A class headed by Bond with a final 1:37.4 against Parkes 1:37.8 to secure the win with Jared Predo in the Excel taking third. Barry Clark had a good 6th run with a 1:37.42 to secure the B class win, and also scored a best 2wd time in run 4 of 1:36.99. Ric Ganderton improved to a final run 1:38.28 and dropped 7 secs over the day for 2nd, with Josh Newson overcoming some cooling issues in the BMW to end up third after a troublesome day.

C Class saw Graeme Haynes (Beetle) pull out a good final "best in class" time of 1:43.66, but had to settle for 2nd behind LLoyd Robertson with Leigh Randles picking up third. Notably Leigh picked up nearly 8 secs, Mark Davies picked up 10 and Mark Gowley also picked up 10 over the day.

D Class saw Andrew Pearce get across with the win in the Focus from Wilhelm Link, who set the best class time in run 6 of 1:47.1, and Ritchie Ray in the V8 Red Bull Commodore, but Greg Woodbridge set the fastest last run of 1:45.2.

Juniors put on a great show again with Alex Hatje and William Harris improving by 15 secs over the day, and Taylah Gough and Tristan Newson also putting in good performances, but ultimately Hayden Duffield was 3rd with Eddie Gough 2nd, setting the best time of 1:42.69 to best Jordyn Rieks 1:42.97 on the last run, but lost out by just 3 secs to Jordyn who had a consistent, fast run with no hats.

The four ladies also put on a good show with Stepanie Muston besting Chloe Cullen and Maddy Dyba for the trophies. Notably Eva Hatje improved by 19 secs, and Maddy Dyba also dropped 10 secs from their runs over the day.

There were a few spins over the day, and a couple of people, Michael Suhr and the Newsons, had car trouble but perceivered and had running cars at the end of the day.

Thanks to Sam for stepping in to run the canteen (note we need a canteen operator), Donny and Coggo for the excellent track prep and Kevin and Adrian for fixing the loops and computers.

There wer a couple of errors noted post event, detailed on the results. C and D class affected, so see us at the next meet to correct the trophies.

With the passing of John Connell, it seems prudent to load the office bearers that have graced the club since its' inception in 1954.

For those that have been around the club a long time (Donny Power for example), there are many names/memories since that time.

It is worth noting that John was the longest serving President of the club, holding office between 2002 and 2017, and in that same period Jan Connell was Treasurer. In the time since Ron Nielsen, Nev Thompson and David McDonald held the Pres, Sec and Treas positions, the club has been fortunate to have a no of people serve multiple terms, although none as long as John and Jan:

Errol Bognuda held one of the key positions for 8 years,

Graham Burrows also 8 (and went on to serve many years with the Ipswich Kart Club)

Agnes Byrne contributed 10 years,

Tom Gillespie and Allan Ransome gave 5,

Robyn Slattery 9,

and current Treasurer Peter has done a couple of stints over the years.

Note that the above does not take into account other position/work carried out for the club and just an example of some peoples efforts for the club.

I started in the club in 2002 (maybe late 2001) and John and Jan welcomed myself and the family into the club with open arms (as did all the club), and some of my memories include Jan, Betty Wedding and (my wife) Sue sitting in the tower with stop watches for the timing:). Competing at many eveents around SE QLD, John was always promoting the club, was keen to mix with other IWMAC members at the meetings and would always offer advice if asked (and sometimes if not), and has always been keen on assisting the younger members. He and Jan also started motorsort in the days when you could rally a Monaro, when people like Peter Brock and Colin Bond were youngsters. He had some very intersting stories to tell.

Below is the current version of a presentation from the 50th Anniversary showing the key positions over the years. Of course it does leave some long term workers off, like Donny and Kevin Parkes (VP for I don't remember how long), so please take these comments as just the tip of the iceberg in the clubs history.